Gazprom gives Siberians coal miner
Photo of Glory Stepanov
Siberian Maldives
The majority of Krasnoyarsk, Barnaul, and Novosibirsk citizens associate the Siberian Generating Company (SGK) with dangerous coal pollution with their coal-fired power plants and poisonous ash dumps. Novosibirsk “became famous” for the whole world with one of them, which received the name “Siberian Maldives” for the turquoise color.
Gasification of urban thermal power plants could dramatically reduce atmospheric emissions of hazardous substances: nitric oxide by 5-6 times, benzopyrene - by 13-14 times.
But the environmental benefits are poorly compatible with the interests of the owner of the CHP in these cities. Billionaire Melnichenko, through the SUEK company, owns both the SGK company and the coal mining enterprises of Siberia. So far, he has managed to block the projects for converting city thermal power plants to gas and even to buy thermal stations from Gazprom.
But in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk lower heating tariffs in comparison with the large cities of the European part of Russia (where the TPPs are gasified) are constantly emphasized in the SGK. Saying, basking cheaply and environmentally friendly is a pipe dream of consumers.
Is it true? Director of Siberian Energy Network LLC Viktor Golovkin is convinced that in fact this is a lie to save the business of billionaire Melnichenko. He strongly disagrees with the position of SGK.
For many years, engineer Golovkin has been building and operating local gas boiler houses in Novosibirsk. Modern local gas boiler houses are more profitable and safer for citizens than obsolete monsters-TPPs.
Director of Siberian Energy Networks Victor Golovkin shows how automation controls the temperature in apartments depending on the weather. If the water "in return" falls below normal, the station automatically increases the heat supply to the house
Victor Golovkin - Director of Siberian Energy Networks LLC. This organization has been producing thermal and electric energy for over 15 years. Builds and operates gas boiler rooms and heating networks. Siberian Energy Grids LLC has 13 local stations in Leninsky, Kirovsky, Pervomaisky districts of Novosibirsk. The heat tariff for all these boiler houses is 50 rubles lower than that of the Siberian Generating Company (SGK). And the reliability of heat supply is not even comparable in numbers. SGK in Novosibirsk has thousands of emergency and “planned” power outages every winter. Golovkin has zero. Over the past 5 years, there has not been a single (!) Emergency shutdown of the houses that supplies heat to Siberian Energy Networks.
Narrated by Victor Golovkin
- Viktor Vladimirovich, tell me why you have a lower tariff than SGK, and there are no accidents on heating systems?
- Let's take for example our two boiler houses of different capacities. The one on Zabaluev Street in the Leninsky District has a design capacity of 100 megawatts. While it is loaded only 20 percent. This means that this capacity is enough to heat more than half a million square meters of housing. That is, it will be more than enough for the further development of the "Rainbow of Siberia" and "Pure Sloboda" microdistricts. SGK complain that their heating pipelines quickly rust due to groundwater, but the real reasons must be sought in their poor waterproofing. Our pipes are located entirely in groundwater, which in this part of the Leninsky district approaches almost to the surface of the earth. But this does not cause metal corrosion. Due to the quality pre-insulation that we do in the factory, the guaranteed life of these pipes is a quarter of a century. And the heat loss is not 20-25 percent, as in SGK, but an order of magnitude less.
Heat losses in pipes insulated by modern technologies are 10-15 times less than in heating pipelines of SGK. They do not heat the street, unlike most highways coming from the CHP
Station staff - 3 people (with security guard). And even then people are needed for insurance, to control the operation of automatic systems. Even without generating electricity, our heat tariff is lower than that of SGK by 50 rubles (1330 rubles per gigacalor).
The gas boiler house on 10/1 Odoyevskogo Street consumes fuel energy even more efficiently, since here, in addition to heat, electricity is generated. Station capacity: 10 MW - electric energy, 60 MW - thermal. It provides heat, hot water and electricity to the Birch Forest housing estate. At the moment, the station is half loaded, so there is a reserve for connecting the neighboring KSM housing estate. Now we are heating more than 400 thousand square meters of housing, industrial sites and social facilities. At one time, this environmentally friendly station replaced 6 boiler houses that operated on solid fuel. Residents immediately noticed a change: before the snow was black.
- What are the main advantages of local energy over large thermal power plants?
- First of all, it is the flexibility to regulate the amount of energy produced in accordance with the weather and the needs of the population. We do not have “overturns”. Plus minimal heat transfer loss. Big energy is an inertial and slow system. SGK stations only after a day can change the temperature regime for housing estates. And in local heating networks, we very quickly establish the required mode. It is also important that there is no technical need to keep the temperature elevated in the system, which leads to unnecessary costs and accelerates pipe wear from corrosion.
In the boiler room on Zabaluev Street in Novosibirsk, economical modern equipment is installed that works in automatic mode. His work is supervised by one engineer on duty
SGP CHPP has a lot of outdated technological equipment with a service life of more than 40 years. It has long been outdated, its effectiveness is low. And the consumer pays for these "rarities" and "antiques". At our local boiler houses, equipment pays off in 7 years, and is updated every 10 years. That is, the most modern technologies are introduced very quickly.
- How much more environmentally friendly are local gas boiler houses in comparison with a thermal power plant?
- Emissions of ash and other harmful substances of even the most modern Russian coal stations are 50-100 (!) Times higher than that of modern Chinese and European, by the way, coal as well. Efficiency (i.e. fuel efficiency) also negatively affects the cost of electricity and heat for the end user.
After burning gas, water, steam, carbon dioxide and a little CO come out of our pipes.
Russia has remained the only country in the world where it is allowed to create ash dumps. In the rest of the world, ash has long been completely processed into building and other necessary materials. And Novosibirsk became famous all over the world for the poisonous ash dump lake - the Siberian Maldives!
- Tell us more about why your boiler rooms are more environmentally friendly than CHPs? What technologies made this possible?
- There are several main advantages of a modern gas boiler. We made the smoke coming out of the boiler work. It is economically viable and reduces emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere. This work is performed at the station by a flue gas heat recovery unit. It works like this: smoke at the outlet of the boiler with a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius passes through a special device. There he gives up his heat to produce hot water for consumers and is cooled to 40-50 degrees Celsius.
From the pipes of a powerful gas-fired power plant on 10/1 Novosibirsk Odoyevskogo Street, a light haze blows that contains several times less harmful substances than emissions from a coal-fired power plant of the same power
Due to the fact that the temperature of the flue gases in the utilizer decreases, the so-called dew point is inside the chimney and all harmful impurities that were previously emitted into the atmosphere condense, turn into liquid and collect in a special container. As a result, water vapor and carbon dioxide come out of the pipe instead of smoke.
We consume fuel much more efficiently, therefore it is required less than at CHP plants, and accordingly less harmful substances are formed during combustion. Loss of energy all the way to the consumer - 1,5 percent. On our heating mains the snow lies and does not melt, and wherever there are heating mains of the SGK, there is no snow all winter and doves are warming.
- It turns out that save the SGK in the competition can only be a big lie?
- Let the Novosibirsk people draw their own conclusions. But the fact that the energy monopolist resorts to juggling the facts to squeeze competitors out of the market is for sure. In 2018, the Novosibirsk heat supply development scheme was written under the dictation of SGK.
It states:
“The decommissioning of boiler houses, provided for by the Novosibirsk heat supply scheme, will primarily improve the environmental situation inside the micro-districts near which boiler houses are located, which are sources of harmful emissions. Residential buildings, public and industrial buildings will receive heat from thermal power plants equipped with modern environmental protection equipment. Cogeneration plants are a much more efficient source of heat supply. The heat of boiler houses is more expensive than the heat of a thermal power station. ”
There is a frank distortion of the facts!
Fortunately, in 2019, the city authorities of Novosibirsk ordered the development of a heat supply scheme for independent experts. And their recommendations were completely different: the city should maintain modern local gas boiler houses to improve the safety of heat supply to Novosibirsk citizens.
The degradation of pipelines operated by SGK will increase every year, and when the point of no return comes, it is not known. But there is every reason to predict the impending technological catastrophe of heating systems operated by SGK.
The lack of a strategy in the development of Novosibirsk energy and political will has led to its current precarious situation. It is time to really assess the situation and draw the right conclusions.
For reference. Novosibirsk was included in the list of the most polluted cities in terms of nitrogen dioxide. Greenpeace has released a rating of Russian cities on air pollution with this element. According to these data, Novosibirsk took the fourth place. The situation is worse only in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Chelyabinsk.
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